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iReview | Edition 4

Upon opening the first page of the book, you’re thrust into a conversation being held by two 5 year-olds - Alex and Rosie - in note form. The rest of the story carries out this style, flitting from notes, to letters, to emails, IMs, and even chat rooms. As you read on, the characters grow up fairly quickly, reaching the age of 16 within the next couple of pages. Not long later Alex is abruptly uprooted and moved to America when they’re 17, their life-long friendship is forced to stretch across the ocean. But when a plan for Alex to fly back for their debs fails, and Rosie ends up going with Brian the Whine, things go wrong - way wrong.

Rosie is thrown into a situation she’d never planned, and a situation that ruins every other plan she’d made. College is no longer an option, and suddenly, she’s trapped into a life she never wanted. Alex is too far away to be of much help, but she makes a friend soon, who’s hilarious in her own way. Eventually, she gets a job working in her dream industry: a hotel. The bosses are great, and she’s offered a huge promotion. Things start to look up, but nothing really is as rosy as it seems...

I wasn’t much of a fan of this whole note-writing/emailing format that Ahern used this round, because I tend to prefer more descriptive writings, but I’ll make an exception for this one. It captured the candid-ness of all the characters, and it showed everything that’s going on, even if the other characters aren’t aware of it. As was Ahern’s other books that I’ve read, this made for a perfect relaxing read, that I looked forward to finishing. If it means anything, I found myself thinking about how everything took so long to finally arrive at the conclusion for days on end. I’ll definitely be reading this again sometime in the future.

What happens at the debs that changes Rosie’s life? She get’s pregnant, and little Katie’s father is Brian the Whine, who runs far, far away after he finds out. Even though Rosie hates him for it, she loves Katie with all of her heart. She finds a guy who’s willing to take both her and Katie after a long time, and Alex marries a girl from med school. But the big problem is, everyone except each other knows who they’re really in love with…

Teen Idol - Meg Cabot

This has gotta be one of the first chick-lit books I’ve ever read, and I decided to revisit it last week, courtesy of British Council’s library. The main character is Jenny Greenley - the girl next door, who’s always willing to do anything. A nice, pretty girl; every parents’ dream. Then comes Luke Striker - a hot actor, who’s bruising over an ex-girlfriend (who, by the way, decided to marry an old man). Every girl has his picture on their walls, and every girl throws herself at him. Except Jenny. So when Luke comes, incontigo, to Clayton High, who better to help hide his identity than Jenny? She takes on this role well, but Luke has a few things to say to her that’ll change her perception of herself, and push her to do things she never even dreamt of doing.

I guess I’m partial to this book since, like I said, it was one of the first chick-lit books I’ve ever read. With that said, I absolutely love it! Always have, and always will. It’s hilarious at points, and though the plot is a little out there, it’s totally believable, and nothing seems too unreal. Cabot did an awesome job on this one!